[30.03] The Deep Lens Survey Transient Program

A.C. Becker (Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies)

This talk will present methods and results from the Deep
Lens Survey (DLS) transient program. The DLS core science
objectives require repeated visits to the same part of the
sky to accumulate weak lensing shear signal. The detection
of this effect requires a deep combination of these images,
thus suppressing variability information. In our transient
detection mode, we instead difference these images from each
other, on the mountain top and in real-time, immediately
revealing new and unknown optical transients.

We define our observing strategy to allow detection of
transients on minute, day, month and year timescales. Using
the NOAO 4-m telescopes, we are sensitive to transients
between 15th and 25th mag. We distribute candidate
supernovae to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
(CBAT), and moving objects to the Minor Planet Center (MPC).
Time-critical events are also submitted to the Variable Star
Network (VSNET) and the GRB Coordinates Network (GCN). All
transients are immediately posted on the web at
http://dls.bell-labs.com/transients.html. We plan on using
the DLS techniques, and lessons learned, to develop and
optimize operation of the LSST transient pipeline and
distribution of data on transient objects. The LSST will
cover over 10,000 square degrees of the sky, detecting and
monitoring transients down to 24th mag on 20 sec timescales.
On longer timescales, the LSST will be sensitive to known
types of optical transients out to redshifts of about 5.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please
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